I’ve learned senior health care and terminology because of my in-law’s medical problems. But, I’ve also seen some things that help me to create good characters in my writing.

The term “control freak” was created for my father-in-law. He needs to be in charge of every situation. Since my mother-in-law’s stroke, he can’t control anything.

He’s 93 and his short-term memory is bad. We’ve stepped in and are making decisions he feels he should make. We are keeping him informed and involved. However, we visit care facilities, talk to her doctor, talk to his doctor, and general manage everyday decisions as well as major medical decisions.

If I wanted to rip his heart out, I couldn’t pick a better way than to take decision making out of his hands. His memory problem makes the situation worse, since he can’t remember that we’ve discussed the issue with him before.

Good storytelling means that you need to make things as difficult as possible for your characters. Find your character’s wounds and weak spots. Then hit them where it hurts the most.

How can you use your observations to create good characters?

• Give your characters realistic flaws
• Present them with situations they least want to experience
• Observe how people avoid situations they don’t like
• Listen to speech patterns
• Keep a list of interesting body language movements

A good book about how to create good characters is 10 Steps to Creating Memorable Characters by Sue Viders, Lucynda Storey, Cher Gorman, and Becky Martinez.

What do you do to create good characters that come alive for your readers?

Write on,

Lynn Jordan